Alvin Brockley Merryman was born in 1949 in King George, Virginia, to Sherman E. and Della M. Cox Merryman. His father was a farmer, his mother was a housewife and he was one of nine children. He grew up working around the farm after school each day and played baseball in the city league for several years. Al dropped out of school in the tenth grade to help his family and worked surveying land. He met Margie L. Jenkins in 1967 and they married in 1968. In March of 1969 Al was drafted, sent to Fort Benning, Georgia for basic training and then to Fort McClellan, Alabama for AIT. He was deployed to Vietnam in September of 1969 and joined Alpha Company at LZ West where he served as the RTO. While he was in Vietnam, his father died and he went home for twenty-two days. He also had seven days R&R where he met Margie in Hawaii. He returned to LZ West and for the last month or two, before returning to the states, he was at the command post running resupply for fire support base. He left Vietnam to Frederick, Maryland as an MP before being discharged in March, 1971. After leaving the service, Al resumed surveying for the same company that he worked for before entering the service but later opened his own residential painting business. Al and Margie have two children and four grandchildren.